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Marvel Legends (Titus Wave): Angela by Hasbro

In case you’ve been skipping out on Marvel Mondays, I’m right in the middle of my look at the Titus Wave of Marvel Legends, the first of two waves paired with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2. I’ve already been through the MCU figures in this assortment and now I’m into the comic based figures. Today’s spotlight is on Angela, a figure that won the Fan’s Choice Poll, or at least that’s what Hasbro tells us. There’s always a whiff of chicanery around those Fan Polls, but quite frankly, I couldn’t have been happier with the outcome, legit or not.

It’s well known that the character of Angela has had an interesting history hidden behind the pages of her comic appearances. Originally created by the legendary Neil Gaiman for the pages of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, her rights were later sold to Marvel Comics where she eventually became established as the sister of Thor. She’s firmly planted her feet in Cosmic Marvel and she hooked up with The Guardians of the Galaxy in Bendis’ recent run of the book. She even got to duke it out with The Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe, and boy did I dig that particular slice of fan service! From the moment she was revealed as a Legends figure, I’ve been excited to get this figure in my collection.

Her corporate masters may have changed, but most of Angela’s look has stayed true to form. She’s still a hot redhead that prefers to charge into battle wearing as little as possible, and I ain’t complaining. Her new handlers have made some notable changes to the particulars of her armor, and stylistically I’d say they’re all for the better. I particularly don’t miss theose 90’s shoulder boards. What she’s boasting now is more elegant and possibly just a little more Asgardian. With her beautiful segmented gold boots and her complex arm armor, most of her outfit resides on her extremities. Indeed, her modesty is protected only by an armored top, a skimpy pair of painted panties, a half-cape, and a wide belt that hangs on her hips. Do I like it? Verily!

From the back she looks almost fully clothed, thanks to a combination of her long hair and that half-cape. Here we can also see her rather chunky scabbard, which is permanently attached to the belt and hangs down behind her at an angle. The coloring on this figure is gorgeous. The combination of the warm skin tones of the bare plastic, the snappy gold and silver, along with a little red and blue gives this figure a sumptuous regal feel as if she really did just descend from Heven.

The head sculpt is absolutely perfect and I’d say among the finest we’ve seen from Marvel Legends. Marvel’s Angela lost some of the heavier handed eye makeup of her Spawn days and now features crimson outlines with lightning tears. I like it. The same paint is used on her immaculate lips, and her golden winged headpiece looks good enough to have been a sculpted as a separate piece. The hair is also fantastic. It spreads out wildly behind her and spills out over the headpiece, offering up a nice feeling of complexity to this portrait. It’s even sculpted in a way that it does not inhibit the neck articulation too badly at all.

Indeed, the articulation here is quite good! You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. Her ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. The torso features a ball joint under the chest and her neck is both hinged and ball jointed. I continue to lament the lack of bicep swivels in the Legends gals, but it doesn’t seem like Hasbro is going to rectify that any time soon. It’s also worth mentioning that while the shoulder armor on the left shoulder is designed to move to accommodate the shoulder articulation, the right one doesn’t. It’s not a huge deal, but it does mean that the right arm can only go up so high before meeting resistance.

Angelica comes with some pretty cool weapons, but before getting into that, I’ll show her off with this thin scarf thing. It’s supposed to be part of her costume, but you’ll note that I haven’t used it on her in any of the other pictures. I find that it just doesn’t sit well enough on the figure and so I’ve opted to remove it. I don’t think she needs it to complete her look and I feel it just tends to get the way.

Her broadsword fits perfectly in her scabbard and can be wielded in either or both hands. The gold hilt matches her outfit, as does the silver blade. It is sculpted using some rather soft plastic, but I haven’t had any major issues with it bending or warping. I’d say if it stays in her scabbard most of the time, it should remain pretty straight.

Angela also comes with this pair of kick ass axes with gold blades. I really don’t have a lot to say about these, other than I dig them a lot and it’s fun to pose her with them.

I’ve had plenty of Angela figures over the years, but none of them came close to measuring up to this one in terms of sculpt, articulation, and overall fun. Granted, if your interest is more from the Spawn side of things, the updated look might not be your cup of tea, but I really enjoy what Marvel has done with her, both in terms of character design and the character herself. The results of these Fan Polls often leave me scratching my head, and I’m still not convinced that a majority actually voted for Angela, but I sure support both the decision and the action figure we got as a result. Not to mention, this Guardians wave was a perfect way to get her into collectors’ hands. She’s currently my favorite figure in this assortment, and with only two left I don’t see that changing over the next couple of weeks. Speaking of which, next week I’ll be checking out Nova and the following week I’m going to double down with both Vance Astro and the Titus BAF.